Notes on the Life of Arago. 65 



Board of Longitude to take the oath to the Prince President 

 and to the Constitution, you had authorized me to suppose 

 that you would not decline an obligation imposed by the Con- 

 stitution on all public functionaries. Your second letter, 

 which bears the same date, but which I received at a later 

 hour, does not allow me to entertain that hope. Without 

 stopping to remark on the change of language, which it is im- 

 possible not to be struck with, and on the terms — so little 

 guarded — which I was surprised to meet with on this occasion 

 from your pen, I considered it my duty to take the orders of 

 the Prince before I accepted your resignation. The President 

 of the Republic has authorized me to admit an exception in 

 favour of a savant whose works have thrown lustre on France, 

 and whose existence his government would regret to embitter. 

 The publicity given to your letters will not change in any 

 respect the resolution which I consider it an honour to 

 transmit to you. Receive, Monsieur, the assurance of my 

 distinguished consideration. " H. Fortoul. ,j 



In his capacity as perpetual secretary to the Institute for 

 the Physical Sciences, an office to which he succeeded on the 

 death of Baron Fourier in 1830, it became the duty of Arago 

 to write the Eloges of its members, both foreign and domestic. 

 Cuvier, as the perpetual secretary for the Natural Sciences, 

 had in this respect distinguished himself as a powerful and 

 eloquent writer ; but we venture to say that his eloges were 

 equalled, if not surpassed, by the vigorous and eloquent bio- 

 graphical sketches which came from Arago' s pen. The fol- 

 lowing is a list of the most important of these Eloges, with 

 the dates at which they were read : — 



1831 — Volta, Foreign Associate. 



1832 — Dr Thomas Young, Foreign Associate. 



1833— Baron Fourier. 



1834 — James Watt, Foreign Associate. 



1837— Carnot. 



1 841 — Condorcet . 



1844— Bailly. 



Of his qualifications as a legislator, the following and con- 

 VOL. LVI. NO. CXI.— JANUARY 1854 t £ 



